Corporate manslaughter charge possible in Grenfell fire

Angry residents want to know how building regulations could have failed so catastrophically [Reuters]

Campaigners rejected a British police statement that there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect that local authorities may have committed corporate manslaughter in a deadly high-rise fire in London, saying the punishment for the charge - a fine - is too light.

Locals demand answers about London's Grenfell fire

The Metropolitan Police force wrote to residents of the Grenfell Tower on Thursday and said officers might interview senior members of the local council and the housing association that ran the public housing block.

The officer leading the case informed the Kensington and Chelsea council and the Chelsea Tenant Management Association that they "may have committed the offence of corporate manslaughter", the letter said.

But since the offence is punishable by a fine, and not prison time, activists have decried the charge.

David Lammy, a Labour MP, said a fine "would not represent justice for the Grenfell victims and their families".

At least 80 people died in the June 14 fire, Britain's deadliest blaze in more than a century.